Posted by Octofem on 8th August 2008
Rather a rush today with mouths to feed etc., and I made things difficult for myself
by expecting clues to be more complicated than they were!
ACROSS
1. QUARTERBACK - (American football position - quarter as in North and South, and
therefore’ point’)
7. BID - (bird without ‘r’)
9. ACTOR - ( hidden in ‘fACT ORiginally.)
10. SEDENTARY- *n trade yes)
11. MOVIEGOER- dd
12. IDEAL - (ide-a-l)
13. RESPITE - (* priest- e)
15. APSE -( L-apse )
18. EPIC - (e-picT- one clue where I was looking for an old Scots word instead of the marauding clans)
20. JOYRIDE - (Joe (as in GI Joe) around*diary without ‘a’)
23. LAVER- (think this is the star but not sure about the bluish colour etc. - lavender without ‘end’?)
24. ANASTASIA - (a-n-ast-as-i-a - asti is the wine - other letters simply initial characters).
26. WINNEBAGO - ( *gain on web - trade name of a mobile home, based on North American Indian tribe)
27. SWAMI - (SW for Cornwall. ami - French for friend - Swami a Hindu title)
29. TREE SURGEON - (The service tree- sorbus domestica)
DOWN
1. QUAGMIRE -( Someone will have to explain this word-play to me.)
2. ACTIVIST - (Act 1-short of vista)
3. TERSE -(hidden in chapTER SEttled)
4. RISSOLE - (<sir-sole)
5. ANDORRA (dual principality)
6. KANDINSKY -(k-and-in-sky(E) - Russian artist, 1866-1944)
7. BLAZER - ((b-laze-r)
8. DAYGLO -(’ ay’ in letters of ‘gold’ - Trade name for manufacturer of Black light paint.)
14. IMPERFECT -(I’m perfect - dd.)
16. DISSUADE - ( di-s-su-ad-e)
17. VEXATION -(*I’ve no tax)
19. CHARADE (char -a-d-e - presumably the ‘d’ and ‘e’ restrict the ‘a’ by coming closely after them)
20. JEALOUS -(j-e-a-lousE)
21. GLOWER- (g-l-ower -David Gower, the blonde batsman and I think, one-time English Captain, now
a popular commentator.
22. AVENUE -( a-venue -(Spent time trying to find and Australian place here!)
25. TASER - (tas-T- er, the controversial police stun gun, now being sold fairly indiscriminately
as a protective weapon to women in the States, I hear. Terrifying thought.)
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 8th August 2008
I found this mostly quite easy but the bottom left-hand corner gave me no end of difficulties. Eventually I filled in 20, 15 and 16 without really knowing why, along with 21.
| Across |
| 8 |
[-b]RUNO,[-l]UTON |
| 10 |
THERE’S NO TELLING - a “teller” is someone who works in bank so “telling” must be what they do. |
| 12 |
(ROBE SO WHAT)* - SHOWBOATER. |
| 13 |
BO[-o]HO[-o] - a shortened version of “bohemian”, which is close synonym of “beatnik”. |
| 14 |
(PETES)*,IN - Brian EPSTEIN was the manager of the Beatles and Paul MacCartney himself described him as the “fifth Beatle”. It’s quite a famous phrase now I think so this made the clue very easy (for me). |
| 17 |
hidden reversed in “mediCINES RArely” |
| 20 |
RUMP - another word for “butt” but why “softly”? |
| 21 |
MISDEALING - “improper distribution” is the definition and “West London borough” is EALING but I can’t explain where MISD- comes from. Have I got this one wrong? |
| 23 |
BECAUSE IT’S THERE - George Mallory’s now famous response when asked why he wanted to climb Everest. |
| 25 |
S(CREW)Y - deceptive definition in “touched” (a colloquialism for “slightly mad”). |
| 26 |
A,F,FE(ETC<)D - another meaning of “touched”. |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
B(RUT)US - very simple clue but this took me ages to get. |
| 2 |
LOP in (SEVEN)* - ENVELOPS. |
| 4 |
(ON BUM I TAKE IN)* - MOUNTAIN BIKE. Excellent, and amusing &lit. |
| 5 |
HAZE - sounds like (Isaac) “Hayes” |
| 6 |
ILL (going up) in FABLE |
| 7 |
SHANGHAI - the definition is “trick” but I can’t work out the wordplay: “Trick (hands) into endless sea journey?” |
| 15 |
PRUDE,NCE - not really sure about this one either: “Victorian person showing discrimination overlooking one’s discretion”. If “Victorian person” is PRUDE then “showing discrimination overlooking one’s” must account for NCE somehow. |
| 16 |
TAP WATER - and another one I don’t get: “What’s piped into bath could make foam it it’s not 11″ (the answer at 11 is THE HARD STUFF) |
| 18 |
START,RE,K |
| 19 |
(TO SEE TIN)* - NOISETTE. |
| 22 |
GRE(ED)Y |
| 24 |
STY,X |
Posted in Independent | 8 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 8th August 2008
A fun golf-themed crossword from Paul (one of my favourite Guardian setters) with a few of his rather suggestive clues as usual. :) There’s lots to enjoy in this puzzle, but I particularly liked 18a, 16d and 19d.
| Across |
| 4 |
TOSS-UP: “Manx [tailless] cat” = TO(M), “back to back” with PUSS reversed |
| 6 |
NIJINSKY: J in NI (”in spinning”) + IN SKY = “held high” for the ballet dancer Nijinsky. I think the “in” is doing double duty here, unless I’ve missed something? Oops - thanks to Andrew for correcting me here: it’s just J IN reversed. |
| 9 |
PLAYER: The golfer Gary Player |
| 10 |
SEA TROUT: “bottom” = SEAT + “good licking” = ROUT |
| 11 |
CAULIFLOWER: “pot half gone” = CAUL(DRON) + IF LOWER |
| 15 |
STRANGE: Another golfer, Scott Strange. Update: This was more likely to be a reference to Curtis Strange, as Superdad points out in the comments |
| 17 |
OBSCENE: OB is an outside broadcast, so OB SCENE might be a “sequence filmed away from the studio” |
| 18 |
PERISHABLES: Lovely definition (”They won’t keep”) and surface reading. The subsidiary is (HIS BEER PALS)* |
| 22 |
ABORTIVE: IT R reversed in ABOVE |
| 23 |
MOTION: N in LAGER for Bernhard Langer |
| 24 |
Omitted according to the site’s policy |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
HUMERI: HUM + ERI(C) |
| 2 |
TIGER WOODS: “a formidable competitor” = TIGER, and WOODS are some of Tiger Woods’s tools |
| 3 |
BITTERNS: “Birds” is the definition, with subsidiary “pecked” = BIT + “others” = TERNS |
| 4 |
TYPECAST: “Class” = TYPE + 9s (players) = CAST |
| 5 |
STATUARY: A collection of statues, from TU (”heart of nature”) in (ART SAY)* |
| 7,25 |
SHOT PUTTER: “took out” = SHOT, and then I’m assuming that 9 21 (”golf player”) is PUTTER as in “one who putts” |
| 8 |
YETI: A fun clue: “but I?” for YET I |
| 12 |
LEE TREVINO: (NEVER LIE TO)* for another golfer. This was the last one I got, since despite the construction being quite clear (and knowing the golfer) the second word looked as if it was going to be DRIVING… |
| 13 |
Omitted according to the site’s policy |
| 14 |
MEASURER: The definition is “Might one rule”, with the subsidiary AS ER around UR (= “old city”) under ME |
| 16 |
NEPOTISM: MS = “Paper” (an abbreviation of manuscript) with I TO PEN, reversed |
| 19 |
ABACUS: A BAC(CH)US - another great clue |
| 20 |
FAIR: “The way of 21″ as in “fairway” and if “not cricket” is UNFAIR then “not not cricket” is FAIR |
| 21 |
GOLF: “Beat up” is FLOG reversed, and golf is “hitting [in] balls with clubs”. I guess the “in” is just there to make the surface reading more painful… Update: in the comments below, owenjonesuk points out that you hit the ball “in” the hole. |
Posted in Guardian | 10 Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 8th August 2008
Sorry everybody from Octofem. My blog will be late today - unexpected visitors!!
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 8th August 2008
| Across |
| 1 |
NS in (PETRA)*,T - “Troy” is a reference to the system of weights rather than the city, which is why it can be abbreviated to T. |
| 5 |
BOATER - sounds like “Botha”. |
| 9 |
I in (AN ACTOR)* - RAINCOAT. |
| 10 |
ER in LOTS (all reversed) |
| 13 |
PODCASTING - I was surprised to find this in the COED; I guess it’s been around longer than I thought. |
| 18 |
(HAS)*,KO - SHAKO was new to me but easily gettable from the wordplay. |
| 20 |
H(EIGHT)ENS - I hope I wasn’t the only one wondering how the answer at 8d would be connected to this clue |
| 22 |
T,R in (AIR FRAME)* - TERRA FIRMA. A well-worked clue I thought. |
| 27 |
W,EIGHT - a reference to the postcode in that part of London: W8. |
| 28 |
INCH,A in (TOE)* - INCHOATE. “Part of foot” does a nice job of misleading here, especially as “toe” appears a couple of words on in the clue. |
| 30 |
VEN(O,MO)US |
| |
| Down |
| 1 |
(THE LOW HITTER WON)* - THROW IN THE TOWEL. Nice clue, with a boxing-related surface reading and answer. |
| 4 |
PE(A SOU)P |
| 6 |
O?T?S - couldn’t get this one: “Popish plotter? Sounds like it”. |
| 7 |
T(E[R]MIN,ATE) |
| 11 |
S(CU)T - this was also new to me but, again, easy enough to guess. |
| 16 |
(VERGING ON)* - GOVERNING. |
| 18 |
initial letters in “Sex Outlets Have Obscure” |
| 21 |
MEN in (SEMI)* |
| 26 |
(SOHO)* - SHOO |
Posted in Independent | 15 Comments »